A Long-Overdue Update

Well it's been like 5 years since I touched this website, but there's a lot to talk about in that time!

First of all, if you go visit the Where to Read section, you will see it has been cleaned up and updated. And first and foremost among that is my very first anthology inclusion!

To save you a click, here is the info:

My short story titled On the Other Side of Sound appears in NineStar Press's Listen: The Sound of Fear anthology, available in both print and ebook from Amazon, or if you don't want to support one of the planet's biggest assholes, the NineStar Press website.

I'm super excited for this inclusion, and the group of writers is a great bunch. There's a huge diversity of approaches in this anthology, despite the relatively tight theme, so be sure to give it all a read!

Next up is an update on WIP. 

I recently finished up a second draft of my current novel-in-progress, Into the Dragon Isles, a kids portal fantasy novel à la The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Mine plays with minor horror themes and overall just has a more nuanced morality than Lewis' masterpiece, and I hope to find a home for it soon. It's about a young girl whose dad commits suicide, leaving her a key to a magical land inhabited by fantastical creatures, but finds a lot more to learn about herself and her dad while she is there.

Mock-up only, I do not own the rights to the art or anything

I also finished reading it aloud to my daughter, who has insisted that I begin work on the sequel, Beneath the Dragon Isles, immediately. So I guess this is my announcement that my next WIP is the first-ever sequel I've begun!

Another mock-up, again no art rights claimed here

As always, I have a lot of other irons in the fire (I think about 3 other novels at varying levels of "in the works", but none of them are ready for unveiling yet.

Creatures of Askrlim

I've started fleshing out what would become my "Monster Manual" if The Tenth Rune were an RPG. I've posted the page over here, where I will be keeping it updated as I develop the world further, but I often find when writing that it helps to have a pool of cultures and creatures to reference. In stories set on present-day Earth that is all set already, but when you decide you need to make up a whole cosmos like I did this time, a bestiary can be handy!

On a similar note, have any of you noticed how hard it is to come up with magical creatures for a fantasy setting? Fantastical creatures tend to be either amalgams of mundane creatures (I'm looking at you, manticore, hippogriff, sphinx and chimera) or else big versions of everyday animals (giant spiders? dire wolves? oversized ladybugs?) Do any of you have any useful advice or resources for creating original monsters?

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The Tenth Rune and Faceless

If you've been to my Projects page, you may have noticed a novel-in-progress with the unfortunately bland title of Flight of the Valkyrie. I've decided to change the (working) title of that one to The Tenth Rune, which I believe to be more fitting to the story.

I've also posted a new short story that may or may not be part of that novel, but tells the origin of the female Loki-equivalent deity in the pantheon: Faceless. Go on and give it a read!

Hopefully I'll add some more of the cosmogony of Askrlim on here as I develop it further. I've done a lot of re-imagining of the Norse myth that the story draws from, and only a limited amount can fit in the story so I think this would be a neat place to display it.

I've also got a few other short stories in the works set on Askrlim, but I can't post them here since I've got some places in mind I'd like to submit them to. I found a call for anthology submissions at World Weaver Press for a few anthologies that I think would suit this world well. I'll keep you filled in on them as I go.

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Satan!

Here we belong, Fighting to survive,
In a world with the darkest powers,
And here we are, We're the princes of the universe

"I love Satan!" I told artist Kelley Williams when he showed my the first colors from the forthcoming comic in the Killer Queen Anthology.

As you can see, I was referring not to a newfound adoration for the Dark Lord, but rather to Kelley's fantastic realization of the Lord of Lies. Fear not, church friends, I still denounce Satan and all his works. Except those in dealing with Space Whales. But we will have to wait a few more months before we get the deets on that conflict!

In the mean time, prime yourself with this:

Killer Queen

I am immortal, I have inside me blood of kings,
I have no rival, No man can be my equal,
Take me to the future of your world,

I am pleased to announce that a short comic I wrote will be appearing in Red Stylo Media's Killer Queen Anthology!

I won't give you too many details yet, but it's inspired by the song Princes of the Universe. The artist will be the talented Kelly Williams, and here's a sneak peak from the comic:

Be sure to follow the anthology at Red Stylo's site and the Killer Queen Anthology Facebook page. And of course I'll let you know on here when there's more to tell!

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